By using this system, you will learn 10–15 times more vocabulary every time you look up the meaning of a word! You’ll also remember more of what you study, because you’ll be making mental connections and learning in an interesting way. The secret is using ‘word webs’. This powerful learning tool will change the way you learn vocabulary and idioms. In this video, I’ll explain what a word web is, how to use it to learn English, and finally I’ll do an example word web with you.

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TRANSCRIPT

Hi. James from engVid. I would like to help you with your vocabulary. I’m sure that you’ve looked at engVid and seen many lessons on vocabulary, from drinking, vacationing, weddings, all sorts of things. But when you finish the video, how much do you remember? And how much do you really understand? I’m going to teach you today something I call the… A word web to help you not just remember the words, but truly understand them, and expand or go bigger than that. I did a lesson earlier on, on mind maps where I kind of introduced the idea of mind map, but I didn’t really… I don’t think I got into it as much that would actually show you how to use it so that you can get better with it. So, I’m going to fix that today. All right?

So what we’re looking at is called a word web. And if you notice, poor Mr. E is caught up in the web. Nooooo! And I’m going to do the same with you. I’m going to get you… Because this is a spider, and the spider lives in a web, it catches things and those things can never escape. I want to do that with your memory and your vocabulary, teach you in a way that you’re going to catch the words and you won’t forget. Okay? So I’m going to explain the method here. So we’re going to be clear on the method, then we’re going to take a word and use it, and show you how it works. Ready? Let’s go to the board.

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All right, so, word web. This is a specific form of mind map which means it’s one type. There are many types. Okay? And what they… What they do is they’re based on the idea that your brain works a certain way with pictures and colours. So, why don’t we use these to help you? And I’m going to do that now. What you will need, you will need a ax… You will need an English to English dictionary. If you really need to get, you know, your language to English, that’s fine if you really need it, but English to English dictionary will be preferable because we want to get the definition of the word from an English source, not a translated source. Okay? So maybe we should start with your translating dictionary, and then after take the English word and get an English to English. The translating dictionary will help you understand the ideas, and then the English to English. And sometimes you might notice they don’t exactly say the same thing. That’ll be interesting for you.

Next, you’re going to need access to the internet or an idioms dictionary. The idioms dictionary will be for later on, and they have them and you can even go online and look for idioms. But the joke of it is I said access to the internet. Well, my friend, if you’re not on the internet, you’re not watching this video, so I’m assuming you’ve got access to the internet. Okay.

The next four steps will be this: We’re going to take a word… So, we’re going to take one word, whatever the word is, we’re going to write out the definition from the dictionary. What the dictionary says, not what you think, not an interpretation or somebody giving you sort of their idea of it. From that, we’re going to follow… Okay? We’re going to write out the words you think of when you see this word. This is called association. I think: “Cat”, I say: “Dog”. You say: “Milk”, I say: “Cow”. I associate. This is the words that come to me. I want you to do that because that is part of a natural human process. You think of something, you think of something else. You think of: “Mother”, you think: “Love”. You think: “Money”, “McDonald’s”? Probably not. But you get the idea. Okay? So we’re going to start with the dictionary definition, then we’re going to work with how your brain works. I want to have your mind incorporated or use your way of thinking in this. So you’re going to put down your words. So if it was: “Cow”, you might put: “Milk, cheese, and steak”. Mmm, steak.

Then we’re going to go out… Back to our dictionary, we’re going to look for synonyms. If you open any dictionary usually it will say: “This is the word”, and then it will have after it: “Here’s a synonym for this word. Here’s another one.” Synonyms, you know, words that are similar. For instance, height and tall. How tall is the building? What is the building’s height? They’re not exactly the same, but they can be used in a similar or same fashion sometimes. Okay?